RisenClan Book Two: Evermore

Chapter Eight

Bitter hatred tore and ate away at Hallowstorms flesh. At first it had only been hatred for his sister. He viewed her as spoiled, and even though when they were apprentices Hallowstorm would have done anything to protect her he now felt as if he wanted to everything to hurt her. Now, not only did he hate his sister, but he also hated just about every other cat in the clan. He longed for revenge on everyone who had ever done anything to him. And even those who met his eye contact. He wanted power. 

As he sat across camp he saw Ruinstar take her first step outside with her kits since their birth. She had kept them inside the safety of her den since they were born two weeks prior A lot of cats had not seen them yet. Hallowstorm seemed to be the only one who was not excited to see kits roaming around camp again. The disappearance of his kits and Flashstorm's kits had hit the clan hard. They looked every day but finding them now seemed impossible with no scent trail and the fact that snow slowed down the daily search. Hallowstorm had cared at first about his litter, wanting them home and safe. But now he had already moved on. There would be plenty of litters in the future. 

As he stared at her he reminded himself how useless she was as a leader now. She would be caring for her kits a lot of time and when she did go out she would tire easily. Pregnancy left physical changes on the body that took time to overcome. He hated his sister with a burning passion but envied Ruinstar because she had all the power.

Soaringpaw yawned awake and noticed he and Mossypaw were the only ones remaining in the apprentices den. Soulpaw and Ensoulpaw must have gotten up early to go on a patrol. They never woke up early on their own will. Grizzlypaw was up early every morning so that was no surprise. He stood up on all fours and padded clumsily over to Mossypaw's nest and nudged him slightly. "Wake up lazy fox!" The tom joked.

He was already back to his normal self after only needing days to get over the initial shock that went into losing his sister. He was feeling better now and ready to start working hard on training with whoever would take him since he knew Hallowstorm would not. "Get outta my face vermin!" Mossypaw spat in a joking tone.

Soaringpaw grinned and let Mossypaw get up. "Wanna share a vole or something?" He asked the Cinnamon tabby.

"Sure!"

As the two friends headed outside the ginger tom noticed Ruinstar huddling her kits that tried to pad away from her. They all had squinted eyes, they had not been out in the sun yet. Soaringpaw had not seen them since they had opened their eyes. As they padded over to the freshkill pile he took in which color eyes each of them had, putting their names to their faces. Airkit, the gray she-kitten rocked a pair of silver tinted eyes like her mother. They sparkled brightly. Graspkit had green eyes like Risenspirit. Sweptkit had bright yellow. Freshkit's were green as well. And the smallest tom, Grantedkit has large Amber eyes.

Just as the two toms reached the fresh kill pile they heard Ruinstar's voice. "EVERYONE PLEASE GATHER BELOW THE LEADERS DEN FOR A CLAN MEETING." 

"Maybe later?" Mossypaw told Soaringpaw, running his tail along his body as if to tell him to follow him to the leaders den. Ruinstar picked up Sweptkit and set her next to her father, Risenspirit who attempted to keep all the other kits together. Sparrowstep went over towards him with a playful light in her eyes, ready to help Risenspirit. She had always loved kits and had taken him and his siblings in as kits. In moments all the cats were gathered and listening. Ruinstar jumped atop of the stone and looked down at her clan. 

"Cats of RisenClan..." She began, her strong voice echoing through the air. "We have an apprentice here that has trained for moons and I have spoken to his mentor and we believe this individual is ready to become a warrior in his turn."

Soaringpaw felt Mossypaw's hair stand on end and bristle, just knowing it was him who would become a warrior today. Ruinstar continued, and looked down at Tulip-paw. "But also I wanted to mention to Tulip-paw that even though she will not share this day of promotion with her brother that all of RisenClan is happy that you are now training to become a medicine cat. It takes a lot of moons of training to learn everything and when you are ready that will be your time to become a medicine cat."

"Thank you Ruinstar." Tulip-paw purred.

"So, Mossypaw, please step forward." Mossypaw did, his paws seemed to be shaking with excitement. "I, Ruinstar, leader of RisenClan call upon our warrior ancestors to look down on this apprentice. He has trained hard to understand the ways of your code and now I commend him to you as a warrior in his turn. As his mentor, Running-gaze; do you approve of this apprentices commendation?"

Soaringpaw turned around to see Running-gaze, his half tail waved with excitement and pride for his apprentice. "I do!" He turned back around to face Ruinstar.

"Mossypaw, do you promise to uphold the warrior code, and protect and defend this clan, even at the cost of your life?"

"I do!"

"Then by the powers of StarClan, I give you your name: Mossypaw, from this moment on you will be known as Mossypath. StarClan honors your enthusiasm and courage and welcomes you as a full warrior of RuinClan."

All the cats around him began to cry out "MOSSYPATH, MOSSYPATH."

After it had died down Ruinstar spoke again. "Alright, now after that celebration there is one more thing I would like to announce. After the loss of Flashstorm's and Worthypelt's litter there is no need for them to stay here all day or sleep in the queens den. We will not stop looking for them, but for now I am going to ask that they pick back up their warrior duties. That's all."

The former queens nodded sadly. Everyone began to separate and go off to do their own things. Soaringpaw bound his way over to Mossypath and touched noses with the older tom cat. "Congratulations Mossypath!" Soaringpaw purred, testing the new name on his tongue. 

"Thank you Soaringpaw, you won't be far behind now!" He added with happiness in his eyes. Soaringpaw nodded his head. He could only imagine standing by Ruinstar one day soon as she gives him his warrior name.